Christmas Recap - Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, I had two Christmases this year: MN Christmas (December 21-25) and ND Christmas (December 25-29).

To leave off where I did yesterday, Michael and I hit the road just before noon on Christmas Day to drive to ND. That was the third time in 6 months that we have done that drive and it was by far our best one yet. We were definitely in good spirits, the driving conditions were good, and there was very little traffic. I mean VERY little traffic. I think we saw 4 cars between GF and Minot. It was amazing! We listened to Christmas music most of the drive (since I drove from Alexandria on, I got to pick the music) and then jammed out to Lady A from Rugby to Minot. It took us 7 hours to get from Edina to Minot, counting stops for gas twice. That is record time for me (hey, I like to drive fast) and also shorter than it took us to get from Chicago to MSP. I'll do the drive from MSP to Minot over Chicago to MSP anyday!

When we got to my parents' house, we ate our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and then opened gifts. Again, I was super blessed and received some awesome stuff: yoga clothes, UND hoodie, food processor, an ice cream maker, and towels to name a few. M and I gave my parents their chef's jackets, which they loved. I'm sorry I don't have a pic.

We then Skyped with the S family in CO to do Christmas with them. M and I got Kaden the CUTEST gifts so we were VERY excited for him to open them. We got him a bunch of Fighting Sioux clothes he can grow into and then, the best gift: LeapFrog's My Pal Scout.

Scout happens to be the exact same dog from the "On the Farm" book I referenced during my Thanksgiving post. I'm posting the video below so you can see all the cool things he does.



Jami and Chris set him up to say and spell Kaden, as well as his favorite food (pears), animal (dogs of course) and color (green - Jami guessed!). Kaden LOVES Scout and so do Mama and Daddy! M and I were so glad!

After that, ND Santa came and brought me even more cool stuff: stainless steel measuring cups and spoons, dishtowels, Twins socks and scarf, and more. Again, thank you ND Santa for being so very generous!

The day after Christmas, my dad had to work so the rest of us spent the day relaxing. My dad made us his delicious Beef Barley Soup and we watched football, played a few "rousing" games of Scrabble, and read books.

Monday, Jessi had to go back to Fargo and the rest of us had another lazy day. My dad was off work at 5 that night so we decided to make our own homemade pasta noodles for Lasagna. My aunt Maria, who lives in Austria, gave my grandma and dad a pasta machine a few years ago to share, but no one had ever used it. So we decided to give it a try. My mom and dad wore their chef's jackets - super fun! - did most of the pasta making, while Michael and I made my dad's homemade "Red Sauce" recipe. It was definitely good to have four people on hand because you needed two for the sauce and two for the pasta. Rolling out the pasta was fun - each sheet was about 6 feet long and there were four - and then we cooked them before layering the lasagna. We had some leftover so we decided to try them. OMG - they were SOOOOO good! I cannot even describe to you how amazing they were. I definitely want to get a pasta machine someday to make homemade pasta. The lasagna turned out absolulely fabulous and now I will never order lasagna at a restaurant again, because I know it won't be as good!

Tuesday, my grandparents came over for a bit, and the M and my dad went flying, so my mom and I went shopping. We were looking for a dress for her to wear for the upcoming Diamond Awards (more on those later). That night, we laid low at home and watched the weather. Our original plan was to leave Thursday for Fargo for K's wedding so we could have another day with my parents, but the weather forecast was predicting back to back blizzards, starting Wednesday night.

Wednesday, we woke up to learn that not only was the storm still coming on Wednesday, but it would be in Minot by early afternoon. We packed up our stuff and hit the road around 1:30. The drive was really only bad for the first 20 miles. Then it was fine and we were in Fargo by 5:30. We stayed at Jessi's that night - thanks for hosting us for so many days Polly! - and finished up Season 4 of Dexter. SOOO good! I cannot wait to see Season 5!

The rest of my winter vacation, including a recap of K's wedding, will come soon!